Assuerio Silva

After vacating his King of Pancrase Heavyweight title, Assuerio Silva has reportedly agreed to a five-fight deal with Hardcore Championship Fighting.

The news comes from a recent interview with Silva by Brazilian web site Tatame.

“I’ve signed with HCF and my first fight will be on May 10th,” Silva stated in the report. “I’m not sure who it will be against yet. I believe that they’ll probably give me an opponent next month, after their next event on March 29th.”

Silva has not fought since he defeated Tatsuya Mizuno for the vacant King of Pancrase Heavyweight belt last May. He was originally slated to make his first title defense this past fall but opponent Kestutis “Tiger” Arbocius pulled a no-show just hours before the event was set to take place.

According to Silva, his decision to sign with another promotion stems from a lack of activity while with Pancrase and wanting to field better offers from different organizations. In the end, Silva felt that HCF was the best opportunity for him.

“I vacated the belt because I wanted to wait for offers from a better organization,” Silva said. They started making offers but I still wasn’t fighting for three to four months. The last time I was supposed to fight, the opponent didn’t even show up and I haven’t fought since. HCF made an offer and contacted Pancrase. We’d agreed to vacate the title and now I’m headed elsewhere.”